There’s a straightforward technique to keep in mind pronounce Corey Baker’s identify: “It’s Corey, like ‘choreographer,’ ” he says. “My final identify’s Baker, so I had two decisions in life—both to develop into a choreographer or a baker. And I can’t bake!”
Jokes apart, Baker knew for years that dance was his path. Born and raised in New Zealand, he began tapping after a fascination with magic exhibits led him to strive musical theater. When his highschool English trainer (who owned a dance studio) instructed he strive ballet, Baker grew to become hooked and moved to Australia to check it full-time. He danced professionally in Switzerland and the UK, the place he started shifting towards up to date and tried his hand at choreographing. He ultimately grew to become resident choreographer for the Royal New Zealand Ballet. “I all the time wished to be a choreographer. I by no means actually wished to bounce myself,” he says.
A rising need to work in tv and movie drove Baker to attend movie faculty, the place he discovered have interaction with scripts and started constructing an business community. He’s since labored with artists from Dua Lipa to Lorde and has choreographed for “Strictly Come Dancing,” “Ru Paul’s Drag Race Down Below,” “Hacks,” and extra. However the newest feather in his cap? Season 2 of Netflix’s hit TV sequence “Wednesday.”
Right here, Baker discusses how he received the “Wednesday” gig, pulling off supernatural stunts, and creating delightfully creepy choreo for the Addams Household spinoff. (Beware: spoilers forward!)
The trail from classical ballet to Tim Burton shouldn’t be a typical one! How did you develop into concerned with “Wednesday”?
I met Tim on a mission, and we actually received alongside. (Largely as a result of I’m a Tim Burton fan and have watched each film of his a thousand instances!) I believe he noticed his aesthetic in my work. He requested me to do Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which led to “Wednesday.” [Burton directed four episodes in each season.]
If you consider it, Tim loves method, and he loves nuance. I believe ballet has that, and it additionally has the flexibility to be reworked and disfigured. So it’s utilizing one of the best bits of that previous for me and going, “How will we make that work for the Burton worlds?”
For this season, you choreographed the gala dance carried out by Enid [Emma Myers] and Agnes [Evie Templeton] to Girl Gaga’s “The Lifeless Dance.” How did you strategy that, particularly after Jenna Ortega’s “Goo Goo Muck” choreography went so viral in 2022?
I began with the music, scripts, and characters. How would Agnes, and the way would Enid, dance? Tim was very clear from the get-go: We’re not making an attempt to redo Season 1. Let’s not even pay homage to it. Give it some thought contemporary. That’s unimaginable as a choreographer. You’re entering into and pondering, How will we honor what the script is, honor Tim’s aesthetic, and put these substances collectively? That’s how I constructed the form, tone, and motion language.
From there, we discovered nuances with Tim and [show writers] Al Gough and Miles Millar. And when Emma and Evie got here in, I tailored issues for his or her our bodies.
How would you describe the motion language you created for that scene?
It’s a little bit of every part, isn’t it? There’s a bit of latest, a little bit of ballet, jazz, hip hop, even. There’s stunts and acrobatics. To me, I really feel restricted by the idea that you must have a motion model. I believe you need to create motion that’s most acceptable for the second.
There are issues I all the time do once I’m working with Tim. The pinnacle is all the time both on an angle, or, if it’s straight, the physique’s on an angle. So it’s taking something that ought to be regular and making it barely jarring. That’s the “filter” I placed on every part.
What about that crawling-hand motif?
I wished Factor to be on this motion, as a result of Enid has this excellent relationship with him. I keep in mind being in entrance of the mirror doing this [Baker crosses an arm overhead, walking his fingers across the opposite arm]. That half got here straightaway for some weird cause, and it stayed.
How did you weave Agnes’ invisibility energy into the choreography?
Once I discovered about that character, I believed, Certainly we need to convey invisibility into the dance. We performed round with a number of methods of doing that, which concerned me getting a inexperienced swimsuit and making an attempt issues myself within the studio with Closing Reduce Professional. We pitched the thought to Miles, Tim, and Al, and so they liked it.
Collaborating with stunts, VFX, and SFX was key to figuring all of it out. It was approach more durable than I believed, as a result of to make somebody go invisible on a clear body is straightforward. But when I’m shifting, issues are shifting round me, and the digicam’s shifting—that’s actually difficult. There was a physique double in a inexperienced swimsuit, Evie in a inexperienced swimsuit, a stunt machine that was inexperienced, and plates that we filmed individually. Nevertheless it paid off.
What was it like working with Emma and Evie?
I’ve completed numerous TV and movie choreography with actors who’ve by no means danced earlier than, or have solely completed a step-tap-sway. However these women are skilled. Going into it, I’d requested, “Are you able to ship me your greatest dance movies?” And so they despatched competitors movies of them doing full routines. So I used to be capable of set the bar fairly excessive.
To be sincere, the women may have completed greater than what we ended up doing, however we additionally wished it to really feel accessible to look at, and for the costumes and the stage we had been working with. (And in addition, hopefully, for the general public to duplicate!)
What was the rehearsal course of like?
Once I received the script and music, I received right into a studio with a number of dancers who I collaborate with frequently and created a base layer and a tone—about 90 % of the motion. I filmed that and despatched it to Tim, Al, and Miles and awaited suggestions. Then I taught the dance to Emma and Evie in Eire for round every week (not consecutively—half a day right here, half a day there, round their filming schedule, and generally individually). That was difficult. Then we filmed for a number of hours over two or three days, together with the stunts and crowd sections. Altogether, it was a couple of month.
How are you feeling as Half 2 hits the air?
I’m so excited for Evie, for Agnes’ character, as a result of she’s received this unimaginable arc. She and Emma are each superb actresses, and fierce dancers, and I’m excited for the world to see that.
I believe the world is admittedly gonna just like the dance, the music, and the choreography. Hopefully they’ll movie it and replicate it, and put it up on-line. I’d like to see the world boogying to this second!